Jamal Mahjoub's absorbing portrait of Khartoum is equally as intimate and painfully detached as the writer's own relationship with his birthplace. Both his city and his book are enthralling in their complexities and their subtlety. A Line in the River provides an enticing first encounter for those readers who have never seen the confluence of the Niles - but it is also an affecting and heartfelt reminder, for those of us who have passed time in Khartoum, why it is we long and fear for it so deeply. I have been waiting more than fifty years for this book Jim Crace ukryj opis